September 2002: Review of The Courage to be Catholic; The Second Spring of the Church in America; AmChurch Comes Out: The U.S. Bishops, Pedophile Scandals and the Homosexual Agenda and A Generation Betrayed: Deconstructing Catholic Education in the English-Speaking World.

The Courage to be Catholic
by George Weigel

This most recent work by the distinguished biographer of Pope John Paul II is simply superb. It is, in my judgment, the single best book written on the present crisis in the Catholic Church. What makes Weigel’s book so important is that he places the clerical sexual abuse scandal and the problem of homosexuality in the priesthood in the larger context of what he calls the culture of dissent in the Church,especially since the promulgation of “Humanae Vitae” by Pope Paul VI in 1968. If you read just one book on the Church today, make it this one. You will come to a better understanding of the present crisis and will be strengthened to approach the future with courage and hope.

The Second Spring of the Church in America
by Msgr.George Kelly

This in another excellent book by a great defender of the Catholic Church. The author of the classic study, “The Battle for the American Church”, Msgr. Kelly explains just how the present crisis in the Church in America began in the late 1960’s. Leading the revolution against the Church were dissenting theologians and some dissenting bishops. Particularly valuable are Fr.Kelly’s comments on the bishops and how they often failed to use their episcopal authority to stop the spread of heresy and disobedience to Church doctrine and discipline. There is probably no one in America who understands the Church in all of its compexity better than Msgr. Kelly.This is a book that belongs in every informed Catholic’s personal library.

AmChurch Comes Out: The U.S. Bishops, Pedophile Scandals and the Homosexual Agenda
by Paul Likoudis

For those who read ” Goodbye Good Men” by Mike Rose, this book will read like a sequel with the important addition that Mr. Likoudis connects all the dots, so to speak, and provides overwhelming evidence that there is indeed a homosexual network within the Catholic Church and that a frightening number of bishops and Church bureaucrats are involved.Paul Likoudis,one of the finest Catholic journalists in the country, simply lays out the facts with copious quotations from the very people who have helped to create the present scandal. This book is not pleasant reading but it is necessary reading if lay Catholics especially are to be informed on the extent of the sexual abuse scandal and how and why it occurred.Do read this book and give a copy to your pastor.

A Generation Betrayed: Deconstructing Catholic Education in the English-Speaking World
by Eamonn Keane

This book should be of great interest to all Catholics concerned about Catholic education and its future. Mr. Keane, a dedicated Catholic catechist who has taught the Catholic faith in Ireland, Australia, and New Zealand, has written the definitive work on the philosophical and theological underpinnings of the culture of dissent and their tremendous influence in the area of catechetics. The heart of the book is a discussion of the damaging influence of two leading so called Catholic educators: Thomas Groome of Boston College and Elizabeth Schussler Fiorenza of Harvard Divinity School. If you want to know why Catholic education, and especially catechetics, is so chaotic today, read this great book. The importance of this book is underlined by three outstanding Catholic scholars who endorse it: Bishop Bruskewitz writes the Preface, Donna Steichen writes the Forward, and Msgr. Michael J.Wrenn writes the Introduction. This book is a another must read especially for all educators and concerned parents of Catholic school students.

© 2002, Frederick J. Blonigen and Catholic Parents OnLine